Online services provide electronic content and/or electronic services to subscribers over the Internet and/or other data networks. For example, online services may allow an individual to access online stores, financial services, banking services, legal services, and the like over the Internet. Online services may limit access to individuals or entities who have subscribed to the online service. Alternatively, online services may automate certain processes, such as billing and payment for online content and online services, by allowing only subscribers to store billing information for use in future transactions. Online services may thus provide greater convenience to subscribers than non-subscribers.
In some cases, a subscriber to an online service may wish to provide the online service to a third party. Some solutions for providing access to an online service to a non-subscribing third party involve requiring the third party recipient to subscribe to the service. Such solutions may be cumbersome or otherwise undesirable in cases where the third party may only require use of the online service for a single transaction, such as executing an electronic agreement. Other solutions for providing access to an online service to a non-subscribing third party involve providing a gift card or other token to the non-subscribing third party. The non-subscribing third party may use the gift card or other token for a limited amount of time, but may be otherwise unrestricted in the use of the online service. Such solutions may be undesirable in cases where the subscribing party prefers to restrict the use of the online service by the third party to specific types of transactions available via the online service without requiring the third party to subscribe to the service.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods that allow a subscriber of an online service or other authorizing party to permit a non-subscribing third party to securely initiate a specific online transaction.